Kualoa Ranch: Revisited

Given the fact that my last post on this awesome place was so very heavily Jurassic Park-focused, I promised that I’d return to the popular, 4000-acre, family-owned ranch that has served dozens upon dozens of movies since the 1950s. In fact, even its Hall of Fame – a modest two walls’ worth of framed pictures – tells only a tiny fraction of the movies it’s hosted over the last sixty-plus years. Sadly this post doesn’t involve an actual revisit, but it does involve a little bit more on the movies that have been filmed there as well as some interesting facts.

A Whole New Dimension Of Ghostbusters

The infamous wax museum Madame Tussauds turned out to be quite a stressful and gruelling experience in the end. And no, it had nothing to do with our walk-through of all the famous wax models from Johnny Depp to Kim Kardashian, Anne Hathaway to Scarlett Johansson or Barrack Obama to Donald Trump (who we avoided like we would spores, moulds and fungus), but more so to do with the action we were thrust into in the second half of the tour: a Ghostbusters walk-through tour and a revolutionary virtual reality experience. Okay, stressful and gruelling might be a bit of a lie but saving the world – or the day – is no easy feat!

I Love This Town

Does the title of this post sound familiar? They're the words echoed by one of my favourite Ghostbusters – I have four in total – from the 1984 classic when the guys are covered in marshmallow after giving the giant sticky sailor what for on top of the apartment building now dubbed “Spook Central.” And seeing as you all by now know I’m a huge fan of the franchise, and having just been to the Big Apple itself, it won’t surprise you to know that said-trip involved Ghostbusters quite a fair bit, as well as the welcome onslaught of the smell of burnt marshmallow (not so much being covered in it) and even that once-creepy building as mentioned where refrigerators and kitchen counters just aren’t to be trusted.

The Curious Rockies

Vancouver

After a few days in the hugely undesirable city of Seattle, Vancouver came as a breath of fresh air. Sure it’s a city like most others, but the real difference is it’s in Canada. There might only be a marginal difference in terms of friendliness between Americans and Canadians, with the latter being the friendlier, but such a small detail makes all the difference.

LA And Seattle

There are very few good things to say about the central Hollywood Boulevard area, if any at all. I didn’t even really want to come back to LA this time around. But if you’ve seen my last post on the awesome theme parks here then you’ll know why we did. Our 2014 visit to LA was quite eye-opening at the time, but that’s not to suggest we had a bad experience when not in the parks, and nor did we this time. It just wasn’t a great one.

A Curious Wookie At Disneyland And Universal Studios

If you know us personally (that’s me and Sian), then you’ll have no doubt attended our wedding earlier this year. That means you know we’re a right pair of Disney buffs - and film buffs too. So naturally, during our visit to LA we visited both Disneyland and Universal Studios.

Wonder Woman Review

The past year hasn't seen much luck for the DCEU. That's not to say last year's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were financial catastrophes, but critical ones they were, with their biggest downfalls being their focus on future movies rather than themselves (in a bid of course to catch up with the superior MCU), and with narratives made painfully-incoherent through some generally bad writing and post-editing. And though we've familiarised ourselves with the Wonder Woman and Justice League trailers over the past six or so months, it seemed that all hope was already lost; that the franchise would never do any better than Man of Steel and was doomsday'd to fail. 

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Review

For a film franchise based on a long-time popular Disneyland attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean really know how to flog a dead horse (that’s actually not a bad subtitle), with its fifth instalment Dead Men Tell No Tales having now arrived at cinema shores worldwide.

Get Out Review

When it comes to the horror genre it’s more than fair to say that originality is dead, at least more so in concept than execution. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out might be no exception, but it does in part offer a semi-interesting approach to the age-old get out of that house alive formula while providing an acceptable level of comedy that doesn’t compromise the scares.

Calling Out To All Ghostbusters Fans: Upcoming Film Needs Your Contribution!

It's probably no mystery to you that I’m a pretty big Ghostbusters fan. You might have seen a selfie of me with the StayPuft that was breaking out of the concourse in Waterloo Station ahead of last year’s reboot (which surprisingly didn’t cause any mass hysteria amongst commuters), as well as one of me in the London Film and Comic Con the year before with Dana Barrett herself (okay, there is no Dana – only Sigourney Weaver). This was followed by some in Torquay shortly after at the Optimus Comic Con, where I had the pleasure of meeting many more stars from the original films: Mark Bryan Wilson (Slimer and the Librarian Ghost), Robin Shelby (Ghostbusters II’s Slimer and now the reboot’s Mrs Slimer), Billy Bryan (the StayPuft Marshmallow Man) and Ghostbuster himself Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore).